Within weeks of being kicked out of the Navy Reserve after testing positive for cocaine use, Vice President Joe Biden's son, Hunter, was appointed to the board of directors of the largest non-governmental gas producer in war-torn Ukraine.

Only now has it been revealed that Robert Hunter Biden, the vice president's second son, was discharged from the Navy Reserve in February of 2014. Less than a year earlier, he had applied for and was accepted into a Navy program that allows civilians with no prior service to receive a limited duty officer's commission.

Mr. Biden was commissioned as an ensign on May 7, 2013, and assigned to Navy Public Affairs Support Element East in Norfolk, Va., a reserve unit, according to the Navy.

In June 2013, after reporting to his unit in Norfolk, he was given a drug test, which turned up positive for cocaine, according to people familiar with the situation. Mr. Biden was discharged in February, the Navy said.

Following reports of his discharge for drug use, Hunter Biden, who is a lawyer by training, acknowledged the news accounts are true.

What makes the Biden "bust" especially interesting, though, is the fact that the vice president's son, who graduated from Yale Law School, was made a member of the board of directors of a huge Ukrainian company shortly after being kicked out of the U.S. Navy Reserve.

On April 18, 2014, Burisma Holdings announced Biden's appointment to the board of directors in a press release. Burisma is the largest non-governmental gas producer in the Ukraine, it was incorporated in 2006 and is based in Limassol, Cyprus - a European tax haven.

The Wall Street Journal, which broke the Biden story, says that the appointment of the VP's son to the board of the giant gas producer in the nation now in fierce conflict with Russia raised a few eyebrows:

...he joined the board of the Ukrainian gas producer, Burisma Holdings Ltd., which is controlled by a former security and energy official for Ukraine's ousted former president.

The announcement that Mr. Biden would be responsible for Burisma's legal unit raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest, because his father, the vice president, was engaged in diplomatic efforts involving Ukraine.

The controversy over Hunter Biden's Burisma position was further explored in an article on time.com:

...the company, Burisma Holdings, did not disclose at the time the scope of their plans for influencing the U.S. government.

Recently released documents show that Biden's hiring coincided with the launch of a new effort to lobby members of Congress about the role of the company in Ukraine and the country's quest for energy independence.

There's no indication in the recent reporting about Hunter Biden's cocaine-related discharge that his drug use led to any sort of investigation by law enforcement.